Naming the Books Computer — Rental Books Handbook

Why the name matters more than the number

Every computer on your network has two identities. The number (something like 192.168.1.47) is handed out by your router, and the router is allowed to hand out a different number later — after a restart, an update, a power blink. The name (OFFICE-PC, DESKTOP-K7P2X9) is the computer’s own, and it never changes unless a person changes it.

That’s why office sharing is built on names. Maria’s address for the books is OFFICE-PC:18723 — a name and a door number. Tom’s desktop icon points at the name. If the office used numbers instead, every router shuffle would quietly break everyone’s icon, and mornings would start with “the books are down” when nothing was down at all.

There’s a smaller, human reason too: you can say a name out loud. “The books live on BOOKS-PC” works over the phone, in a text, and on the printed office card. Reading a string of numbers off a sticky note does not survive contact with a busy morning.

Picking a good name

Short and sayable: BOOKS-PC, OFFICE-PC, FRONT-DESK.
Letters, numbers, and dashes only — no spaces, no punctuation. Windows will enforce some of this for you.
Name the job, not the person. People change desks; MARIAS-PC gets confusing the year Maria’s desk becomes Tom’s. Name what the computer is.
Pick it once. Renaming later is allowed (steps below), but every shortcut, icon, and join file that points at the old name must be redone. Choose like it’s permanent, because it mostly is.

How to see the current name

Click Start → Settings.
Click System, then scroll down and click About (Windows 10: System → About).
The name is at the top: Device name. Write it down exactly.

[SCREENSHOT SPOT: Settings → System → About, with Device name circled]

How to change it (Windows 11)

Go to the same place: Start → Settings → System → About.
Click Rename this PC (next to the current name).
Type the new name and click Next.
Click Restart now when asked — the name only takes effect after a restart. Save your work first.

Windows 10: Start → Settings → System → About → Rename this PC, type the name, click Next, and restart when asked.

[SCREENSHOT SPOT: “Rename this PC” dialog with a sample name typed in]

After a rename, do these two things

Update the office card. Cross out the old name, write the new one. The card is the office’s memory.
Redo the shortcuts. Anyone whose desktop icon or join file used the old name needs the 2-minute join once more (the sharing guide, Part 3). The books themselves are untouched — nothing about your data lives in the name.

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